Archive for May, 2011

Senior Citizens Lining Up to Tackle Fukushima

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Some have compared them to kamikazes, but the more than 200 elderly volunteers who want clean up the Fukushima power station say they are just being practical. 72-year-old retired engineer Yasuteru Yamada says: "I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live. Even ...

No Moon Needed For Extraterrestrial Life

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

sciencehabit writes "Given the generally accepted idea of how Earth got its big moon — through a dramatic collision with a Mars-sized body that knocked a huge chunk of Earth loose — astronomers estimate that only 1% of all Earth-like planets in the universe might actually have such a hefty ...

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Details Released

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

trawg writes "Blizzard has lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm at a recent media event held at Blizzard HQ in California, where press were treated to a hands-on preview of the game. Gamers can expect 20 new single-player missions with Kerrigan as a playable ...

ECS Shows Universal PadFone-Like Tablet

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

siliconbits writes with this excerpt from ITProPortal: "Just 24 hours after Asus unveiled its padfone, ECS is toying with an idea that resembles the Asus PadFone — in a nutshell, a tablet that becomes a docking station for your smartphone just by slotting it at the back. While the Padfone works ...

Pentagon Says Cyberattacks Can Count As Act of War

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

suraj.sun tips news that the Pentagon has decided computer sabotage originating from another country can be classified as an act of war. "The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in ...

Carbon Emissions Reached Record High In 2010

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

iONiUM writes "Last year, greenhouse gas emissions rose to a record amount of 30.6 gigatons, according to estimates from the International Energy Agency. From an article at the Guardian: 'Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate ...

World’s Largest Amateur Rocket Prepares For Second Attempt

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Plammox writes "Last year, non-profit, volunteer-based Copenhagen Suborbitals failed at launching what they call the world's largest amateur rocket, because of a frozen LOX-valve. This year, the sea launch platform 'Sputnik' has become self-propelled, eliminating the need for their home-built submarine(!). Sputnik is on its way into the Baltic Sea ...

In Censorship Move, Iran Plans Its Own Internet

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

An anonymous reader writes "Iran is taking steps toward an aggressive new form of censorship: a so-called national Internet that could, in effect, disconnect Iranian cyberspace from the rest of the world (summary of paywalled WSJ report). The leadership in Iran sees the project as a way to end the ...

Is Bill Gates the Cure For What Ails Microsoft?

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

theodp writes "After reading the recent call for Steve Ballmer to step down, gdgt's Ryan Block concludes that it's time for Bill Gates to come back to Microsoft. 'I've long seen it as a foregone conclusion that Ballmer isn't the guy to be running what was until quite recently the ...

Activision Reveals Call of Duty Subscription Plans

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

dotarray writes "Activision has denied it and denied it, but now it's been revealed – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will feature an online service (that's what Call of Duty Elite is), complete with monthly subscription fees. 'Activision executives said they haven't yet figured out how much to charge ...